Always There
by SweetKerosene
Summary: "This isn't how I imagined you undressing me for the first time." She smiled" Bones has a little mishap. Of course Booth is there. A little OOC but it's fluffy. One-Shot


I really have no idea where this story came from or how it got so damn long. But it's just a little something. Nothing special. I wrote myself into a corner on Philadelphia so if anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to read them. =D

Disclaimer: Not mine

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SK

Booth and Brennan sped to a stop and the gravel. They got out of the car quickly running quickly to catch the suspect. The thickly wooded area made running, especially in boots, difficult. Brennan steeled herself seeing Booth and the suspect get further away from her and sped up. The trees had thinned but the ground was still difficult to navigate. She wished she had worn different shoes but when she had told Booth she figured out who had done it he took off, leaving no time to even think of changing her shoes. She had fallen behind; she could no longer see Booth or the suspect and they were both out of their element. That didn't bide well for them.

She had to find them. She caught a glimpse of Booth darting between some trees and breathed a brief sigh of relief before sprinting to him. Brennan could see Booth was having a hard time keeping up with the suspect as well. The guy knew these mountains like the back of his hand. The suspect stuck close to the edge of the bank of the creek. Booth was further away from it but as Brennan was catching up she was near the edge as well. Booth looked behind him shortly, checking to see how close she was and then turned back to the suspect. He was beginning to close in on him.

Brennan was beginning to think that this chase was almost finished when she felt a sharp pain shoot through her lower leg, where her Tibia met her Talus. Booth heard her cry of pain and slowed in his pursuit of the suspect looking back at her. He knew the guy was a coward. General psychology. He was involved in a crime of passion but he wasn't a murderer. Booth gave his chase up completely when he saw Bones begin to lose her balance her arms flailing about her trying to right herself without the use of her foot. He turned back to her running as quickly as possible to her, trying to get to her before she fell into the water.

"Booth!" She implored, her eyes wide with a never before seen fear in them. He wouldn't get to her in time. They both knew that. She gulped in a lungful of air and then she hit the water. Her mouth automatically opened on impact. It was reflex, the freezing water dragging her away from him at a decent speed. Her arms began flailing again, trying to find some lifeline to hold on to. Booth took off running again, trying to get ahead of her. The water wasn't very deep a few feet at the most and it came right up to the edge of the narrow bed but every now and then her head would go under the water and briefly her screams and yelps would cease. That only ignited a fire in him. He had to get her out. The water was moving swiftly, much faster than it would be if it were the dead of winter, the runoff speeding the small stream up enough that she couldn't get her bearings.

Booth was breathing heavily; he was finally making headway on her position and as he stepped into the water bracing himself against a tree along the small shore the water made. He threw off his jacket and waited for her to get to him. Her arms had stopped their wild movements, he hadn't even noticed in his panic to get in front of her. But when he looked at her he saw he staring back at him fear, panic, anxiety, trust… all evident on her face. He held out his hand for her to grab as the water carried her by.

"Bones, you have to swim!" He saw no recognition of what he said on her face. He kept trying; he needed her to try to swim to him before it was too late. "SWIM! Come on! You can do it! You have to swim to me!" He saw her finally trying to make her legs, body, and arms obey him and she began paddling to him fighting against the current that was now much stringer than her. "That's it! Swim to me, baby!" He said waiting for her hand to grab his straining one. He almost cried when he felt her icy fingers clasp his firmly. "YES! I got you baby. I got you. It's ok." He said gently as he pulled her from the water his shirt quickly becoming soaked like his pants. Bones was shivering violently as he pulled her to him trying to get some warmth back into her. Some color back into her unnaturally blue lips. He held her tight for a couple of minutes rubbing his hands quickly up and down her body. Her shivering hadn't gotten any better. Her teeth were chattering and Booth knew that while the shivering was good, shivering so violently wasn't and he needed to get her body temperature back up either way. He looked down at her she looked so small sitting in his lap.

"I have to warm you up." He said half to her half to himself. He saw her nod, even though it was disguised by the shivering. Booth gently laid her on the ground beside him and she immediately curled into the fetal position. Trying to conserve what little body heat she had. Booth suddenly felt very cold as the moderately tempered spring air hit him. He picked up his jacket from where'd he thrown it and turned back to her shivering form. His idea made him grateful for the sun that was beating down on them. He gently uncurled her and lifted her to a sitting position "I'm sorry, Bones, but I think this is the best way to get your temperature back up. You can't stay in these clothes." Another nod, he nodded back to her setting about his task of pulling her top from her, deciding against removing her bra, and then gently removing her pants from her trembling form. He stared at her for a moment. He had seen her in very little before but not quite this little. There was a certain intimacy to seeing her in her underwear that he had been prepared for but was undermined by the circumstances. He pulled his suit jacket, that was warm from sitting in the sun around her shoulders, it covered her to the middle of her thighs. He pulled her back into his lap resuming his earlier technique on her arm and starting on her legs.

After what was probably a long while her shivering had slowed down considerably. She shifted his lap slightly adjusting her setting muscles. "You know…" She said through still jittery teeth. "This isn't how I imagined you undressing me for the first time." She smiled, it took her a while to get it out but when she finally did his body awakened. His mind ran wild with the information she thought about their potential first time together, but now was not the time to delve into it. Too deeply.

He smirked at her. "You think about me undressing you?" If Bones was a normal woman the blush on her cheeks would have been from slight embarrassment instead of blood returning to her face. Bones just shrugged slightly.

"You should stop calling me "baby" when my life is in peril." She said with no conviction what-so-ever. Booth had wondered occasionally if she had heard him call her that on the floor of that clinic. "People will start to think you love me in more than a professional, atta-girl kinda way" She said with a smile, held easily enough the shivering, but it fell when she saw the somber look settle over his face. A thought occurred to him "Booth! What happened to the suspect!" Booth's expression didn't change. He had let him get away to save her. She had let him get away. "I'm sorry, Booth." She told him sincerely, around stilling teeth. He continued to rub her although he could see the color had returned to her face and her body wasn't convulsing anymore.

"Why are you apologizing? You just fell into a river. That takes priority." There was nothing that could have kept him from trying to save her.

"But now the suspect got away."

"We'll catch him, and I'll need my partner alive to be able to do that." He looked down at her trying to convey his earnestness. "Look, Bones, You… and Parker… are the two most important people in my life, and I'm not letting anything take you from me without a fight. Not even a swiftly moving stream of water, ok?" Bones nodded. For a short second she wanted to say something about his alpha male tendencies but she didn't because, in all honesty, she liked them. Booth noticed her eyes had misted over while he was talking, and as the air around them grew silent he wondered what she was thinking.

"Booth…" She sounded apprehensive " When I was in the water…" She paused, trying to gain her bearings "…Fear is a necessary reaction in times of danger, without it fear, species wouldn't survive.

"Fear is a necessary reaction in times of danger, a survival technique. Without it species would go extinct." She paused trying to gain her bearings "But when I was in the water… I felt like the fear was going to kill me. There was no rational thought just an innate, profound panic and…" She stopped talking again, settling back against him and he knew she had no intention of finishing. She was obviously upset. Brennan rarely cried or even teared up, but here she was in his lap with tears threatening to spill out of her eyes.

"You can tell me, Bones. I'm here for you." He knew she knew that. Or at least really hoped she did.

She sighed and for a minute he didn't think she'd continue and he wouldn't push her. He felt her breath coasting along his neck as she started speaking again. "I was paralyzed. I couldn't do anything until I saw you and heard you calling for me to swim. Intellectually, I know what to do in situations like that but… I didn't do it." She shifted again in his lap. "If you hadn't been there, the probability of my death would be much higher." Temperance Brennan was an independent woman, she was brilliant and capable, she should have gotten herself out of that situation, but she hadn't been able to, so she was grateful Booth had. "and that scares me too."

Comprehension fell upon Booth's face; while he sometime had trouble keeping up with her thought process he could always follow it. "Bones, there is nothing wrong with relying on other people every now and then. Sometimes it's nice to know there's someone you can trust. I'll never let you fall, remember?" Bones nodded her acquiescence. It was true.

They sat there a moment longer. "Do you think you can walk?" He had to get back to the Sequoia and call dispatch and apprise them of the situation.

"Yes. The fall into the water prevented my ankle from becoming too inflamed." She had stopped shivering minutes ago but he could tell by the way she held herself she was still cold, and she could put her drenched clothes back on, but as she grabbed her clothes off the ground and began walking back in the direction they came he knew helping her when she clearly didn't want it was out of the question. He kept a careful eye on her and as the got about halfway back to the car he realized their pace had slowed down considerably. He knew it was her ankle he also knew she wouldn't say anything about it. He looked down at it and could see the swelling, the limp, and when he looked back up to her face a slight grimace of pain with every step.

"You ok there, Bones?" He said intentionally keeping the concern out of his voice. If she knew he was concerned and it wasn't just a simple question, he'd never get a real answer.

'Yes, Booth. I'm fine." She said trying to pick up her pace again and affirm her answer. Booth could see her starting to falter and when she couldn't sidestep a stone in time she lost her balance completely. He stepped behind her and grabbed her about the waist, keeping her from falling again and hurting her ankle more. Her head dropped and a sigh of defeat escaped her lips. Booth put her arm around his shoulder to bear most of her weight. That didn't last long as her ankle gave out completely and all energy she may have had to fight it was depleted in her struggle in the freezing water.

Booth slipped his arms under her legs and lifted her. He could feel the protest on her lips but he cut her off before she could get it out. "Let me help you, Bones. "

"Booth I can walk and this can't possibly be good for your back."

Booth sighed; she always had to put up a fight. "We're almost there, Bones. Just let it go"

"All the more reason for me to walk myself." She grumbled under her breath.

"Bones. I'm not letting you down so just…" He stopped himself from telling her to shut up "Enjoy the ride."

"When you finally give me one, I'm sure I will." She said in a very flirtatious tone and Booth couldn't help but look at her. He decided to just leave it at she was just messing with him. But Bones doesn't really do that, does she? A small, nagging, voice said in the back of his mind. Then he'd blame it on the near death experience she'd just had. Her arms gently snaked around his should holding to him lightly and making it easier for him to carry her. Her breathing was settling and by the time they got to the car he thought she was sleep but he felt her moving when he got to the car, he arm removing itself from his neck to open the door and her body moved to help him sit her in the passenger seat. He suddenly felt at a los. His arms felt too light and he already missed having her in them, but there were things that needed to be done and no time to dwell. He walked quickly to his side of the truck getting in and informing dispatch of the events and that. He turned the car on and settled back into his seat. The minutes passed as he waited until he was positive the engine was warm enough for heat.

He could feel her eyes on him and turned to look at her questioningly. "I trust you not to let me fall, Booth" He couldn't help the smile that spread across his face at that. It was probably one of the most meaningful things she could ever say to him.

He turned the heat onto almost full blast and turned the vents towards her and she looked grateful for the thought. "You aren't trying to get out of going to the hospital are you?"

At first she looked affronted that he would think she would say something like that to get out of something until she realized what he'd actually said.

If anyone could look cute opening and closing their mouth like a fish, it was Brennan.

SK

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Thank you for reading.


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